By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

New Tag Champs: This is sort of a delayed Hit for me. By that I mean that in the moment I felt that it was a mistake to take the Unified Tag Title off of ShoMiz and but it on The Hart Dynasty. But, after thinking about it for a bit, I warmed to the idea. For one thing, ShoMiz has never had the chemistry that JeriShow had. For another, I am really looking forward to seeing what The Miz can do on his own. He has been a good United States Champion, but recently that has played second fiddle to his tag team. I want to see more of Miz as a singles star on the rise over the next few months. A few weeks ago I thought WWE was teasing tension between him and Big Show too soon, but at the time I didn't realize they would go to a total split in the team this early. I am fine with that. WWE is getting behind The Hart Dynasty, and with Bret Hart sticking around for awhile, this is the time to put the belts on the young team. I'm also glad that Show got drafted to Smackdown so that we don't get a Miz vs. Show feud.

Sheamus - Orton - Cena: I really liked the verbal exchange between Randy Orton and Sheamus. I can't say that I continued to love the segment after John Cena came out. He was annoying for the most part in the typical way he over does some of the more cartoonish aspects of his character. His cell phone antics were not good, but I have to admit to laughing when he first answered his phone and said that carrying a phone is the reason he wrestles in jean shorts. At least he set up the main event #1 contendership match between Orton and Sheamus. A Hit for Orton - Sheamus. A Miss for Cena. A Hit for hooking the audience at the time Raw usually starts with this segment with three stars and the main event announcement. I suppose that averages out to a marginal Hit for the whole ordeal.

Edge & Morrison to Raw: After the solid battle royal (with a pretty good ending between Ted DiBiase and Rey Mysterio) Raw won three draft picks. R-Truth will likely fill the same role on Raw as he did on Smackdown and that is fine. But, I was very intrigued by the possibilities of Edge and John Morrison being moved to Raw. Edge's babyface return on Smackdown hasn't gone as well as WWE would have hoped (I'm assuming). He appeared to turn heel at the end of the show with the attack on Randy Orton which is probably what he should be. He has done his best work as a top heel in WWE. Morrison has had some really good matches on Smackdown and I can only hope he will bring better match quality to Raw, but I am worried that he won't have the opportunity given the lack of time given to matches on Monday nights. With Triple H taking time off, and Edge looking like a heel, Raw needs another top babyface to go along with Cena and Orton and hopefully this is Morrison's time to shine.

Jericho vs. Christian: WWE has been doing a pretty good job of actually building this feud on NXT. There has been a lot of tension between Chris Jericho and his rookie Wade Barrett, and Christian and his rookie Heath Slater. This was a good match that fit in well with that feud, particularly with the pre-match promo from Jericho and the "apology" from Slater. The match went 14 minutes and featured good wrestling action. It seems like only yesterday that these two were facing in a very good WrestleMania 20 match. They have good chemistry in the ring together and that was on display here.

Kingston to Smackdown: With Edge and Morrison moving to Raw, and with Undertaker apparently taking time off again after WrestleMania (and being somewhat part time at this point late in his career), Smackdown is in need of some babyface star power and they got some in Kofi Kingston. Right now, Rey Mysterio appears to be the top babyface on the brand, but he is still feuding with CM Punk. Jack Swagger's most recent challengers or potential challengers (Edge, Jericho, Orton and Morrison) are all on Raw. You don't know where Big Show will fit in. There is also Kane and now Christian. But, when thinking about the next potential challenger for Swagger's World Title, Kingston seems like the best choice to me.

Swagger vs. Morrison: This was another good 14 minute match. This is the third match between Swagger and Morrison in the last few weeks and they have all been good. They really do work well together. After Swagger lost to Morrison last week, it was good to see him get a strong win this week, especially after that nice ending sequence as he pulled Morrison off the top rope into position for the gut-wrench powerbomb.

Batista vs. Sheamus vs. Orton: I really enjoyed this main event. I am glad that they added Batista for two reasons. The first is that it just made sense given what happened at Extreme Rules that he would want in on the match. The second is that it made it a better match. Orton vs. Sheamus at The Royal Rumble was solid, but not particularly good. Having a rematch now with Orton fully established as a babyface would probably be better, but that can happen again in the future. The triple threat format seemed to help keep the match moving at a better pace than we often see from all three of these wrestlers. The breathers were well timed to give each guy a break and keep the one on one match ups fresh. Edge's interference was a genuine surprise. I didn't see that coming at all. I was hoping that Sheamus would get the win as I am getting tired of Batista vs. Cena, but that is a minor complaint for an otherwise good match.

RAW MISSES

Christian to Smackdown: This was a good Raw. I really enjoyed the draft and thought that most of the moves were good. This was the seventh pick in the draft and came over two hours into the show. Until that point, I was thinking there might not be any Misses this week (of course, no guest host helped). But, I really didn't like this pick. Christian just came to Raw when ECW disbanded about two months ago. He hasn't been given a chance to really do anything on the show. An argument could be made that he will have a better chance on Smackdown. However as I mentioned above, Raw is lacking in top babyfaces right now. After Cena and Orton, there is no clear cut #3 babyface. I speculated that Morrison could fill that position. Christian could have also been given that chance. Also, with Batista, Sheamus, Jericho and apparently Edge as top heels, even with Morrison there is an imbalance (that doesn't even count Miz who should be moving into that top level) between heels and faces.

Ziggler vs. Hornswoggle: Other than Christian getting picked, there wasn't anything else to complain about for a long time. There were no bad matches (some of them weren't good, but they were solid enough) or bad segments. There were no lame comedy scenes. There was no guest host. Unfortunately there was still a Hornswoggle. I am very glad to see that he is going to Smackdown in the draft, so that we won't see his interaction with future guest hosts. I cringed when he came out to face Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler deserves better than this as he looked like a fool. It made no sense that someone would actually book this match. It calls into question who was making these matches which was never explained. WWE did some good things with Hornswoggle early on in his career, and perhaps being reunited with his father Finlay on Smackdown will help. But, he has been one of the worst characters in WWE over the last year.

Jericho To Raw: I liked the first six picks in the draft. I already complained about pick #7. I disliked pick #8 even more. I have already mentioned some of my problems with Chris Jericho coming to Raw in terms of the imbalance between heels and faces. If Edge is a heel, is that good enough to explain why he and Jericho's feud is over? I suppose the steel cage match was enough of an end to the feud, however there should still be animosity between them. Time will tell how this proceeds. In the short term, if Edge feuds with Orton and Batista continues to chase Cena and the WWE Title, then who does Jericho feud with? I've already speculated that Morrison will be the likely choice while Triple H is gone, but weren't these two on Smackdown together? We could have seen them feud there. Maybe I am forgetting someone. With the imbalance, who is there for Sheamus to face now that he has gotten rid of The Game?

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, NXT, and Superstars each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.

For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare Jason Powell's views to mine by visiting prowrestling.NET's "Hitlist" section here.

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